If you have been keeping up to date with the blog over the last few months you will have seen our reviews of a range of cars suitable for large families. You can see our review of the Honda CRV here.

This article is part six in this series and this time we are looking at the Skoda Octavia Scout.

Skoda describe this large estate car as ..  “Safe, comfortable and intelligent. The new ŠKODA Octavia Scout is the benchmark for the contemporary adventurer”

“Designed around the characteristics of the timeless Octavia Estate, the Scout model features cutting edge safety features and unrivalled space.”

I was very pleasantly surprised by this car. I am not sure what I expected but this looks good both inside and out. It is well made and the finish is of a high standard.

The immediate thing that struck me about this car, and indeed something I always look at first is the boot space. The boot in this car is huge and very suited to a family, especially if like us you travel with everything except the kitchen sink.

The boot is both deep and quite tall and can easily fit a large pushchair in with loads of space to spare. We also had scooters and a guitar in the back and there was space to play with.

There are useful pockets in the boot, perfect for standing milk in on the way home from the supermarket or items you need to be within easy reach on a trip.

Although not three full seats across the back, there is plenty of space in the back of the Skoda Octavia Scout. The seats are comfy both in the front and back and the finish is good.

If you are only using the two back seats then there is a useful armrest, complete with cup holders.

We used two Isofix car seats in the back and they attached really easily. Sometimes this can be a fiddle in cars but these work really well. One of the issues with Isofix car seat bases can be the space that the leg takes up in the foot well, but as you can see from the photos this really wasn’t an issue in this car. There was still plenty of space for me to fit the nappy bag in.

With two Isofix bases in the back there was still ample room for an older childs’ booster seat. We like the ones by Bubble Bum as they are comfy and practical in small spaces.

Overall I think this is a fantastic family car and I was really impressed with the drive and size. I have listed the pros and cons of this car for families as we see it (there were not many cons):

Pros:

• Well made
• Auto gear box is nice
• Sports mode is aggressive and livens it up
• Very large boot – good depth and height
• Comfortable
• Overall nice drive
• Heated seats go all the way up the back
• Lots of leg room in the back
• Isofix fittings are easy to attach
• Nippy
• Good acceleration
• Easy to manoeuvre
• Good visibility
• VERY economical

Cons:

• Sat nav difficult to use and chooses odd routes
• Not three full seats across the back but bigger space than many
• Drinks holders are too small

Any questions just ask!